Ten of my favorite Spawn toys of the 90's

Nostalgia time!

Growing up I'd always had a definite love of monsters and the macabre, likely a direct cause of early viewings of Night of the Living Dead. Around '95 or so I discovered Spawn thanks to a friend who had received Spawn Alley that past Christmas. It was the coolest playset I'd seen and I knew I had to have one, it was pretty much a match made in hell. Now that I had the toys the next natural progression was to read the comic. I'd always dug comics but this was different. The artwork, the storyline; everything felt so adult, as if I should not be reading it. I was hooked.

Much like the comic, the toys were nothing like the hunks of plastic I was used to. McFarlane Toys took what was essentially a children's market and turned it into one that was geared towards collectors. The sculpts were loaded with demonic detail, it was everything I could have ever wanted from a toy line.

Onto the list!

Malebolgia was pretty much the demonic kingpin of the comic, he was also the single-most difficult to find action figure ever (for me anyhow!) If you did luck out and find the guy he was always over priced. Sadly this is the only figure in the line up I didn't own in my adolescence.

Al Simmons wasn't the first Spawn, any person or creature that made a descent to hell could become a Spawn. This was something McFarlane played on throughout the Spawn series. Viking Spawn was just that, a Hell-Spawn-viking. He included a huge axe, removable mask, and a few other items. He was pretty epic.

I remember saving up my nickles and dimes in anticipation for The Freak. Looking back I can't remember if he made his appearance before or after the release of the figure, though at the time I do remember an aire of mystery surrounding the character. The guy was right up my alley though, white eyed, crazy, with a bag full of weapons.

As I mentioned anything could become a Spawn, even Werewolves. Scourge was an all around awesome figure and one of the closest things to an all out were-monster that I had in my collection.

Zombie Spawn combined two of my favorite things, zombies and spawn. He's also responsible for saving my Duke Nukem figure from the depths of the trash bin. Duke's hand had broken off and decided to crawl away (more than likely thanks to my mom's vacuum.) I didn't have a much income back then so ol' Duke couldn't be replaced too easily. So what'd I do? Using my Grandmother's hot glue gun I attached Zombie Spawn's chainsaw to Dukes stump ala Evil Dead II. No joke.

I clearly remember the day I finally found Series 8's Gravedigger. He included a lantern, tombstone, two shovels, bones, a pick axe, and best of all 5 bendable demons. I was surprised they could get all of that in one normal sized package. One thing I loved about these original characters was that most of them were not featured predominately in the comic, you could use your own imagination to come up with their back stories which were likely more screwed up than anything they could print in a comic.

Series 12 was one of the last series I purchased before I (regrettably) started spending most of my money on WWF items. It was also one of the last Spawn lines to feature articulated toys as opposed to (essentially) small statues. I can't recall what kind of a part Re-Animated Spawn played in the McFarlane universe, but I do remember his badass reign on my shelf.

I couldn't tell you how many times I called Walmart looking for Vertebreaker. It was likely almost a daily event for an entire Summer. Eventually one of the employees answered "yes" and my mom was given the dastardly job of going to the department store and picking up the figure. For a few years Vert' would sit high atop Spawn Alley and guard my room.

Tremor was a character created specifically for the toy line, though he would eventually show up in the comic. In the fifth series the character was given a much needed upgrade with one of the coolest gimmicks ever. Blood could literally be pumped throughout his body. No joke. Tremor would eventually be given a purple paint scheme with a green fluid replacing the red. Yeah, I double dipped on that one.

Lastly we'll end this with what was likely the best produced incarnation of Spawn during that period. Series 12's Spawn IV was the ultimate Al Simmons' Spawn around. There were also a handful of variants available for this guy so you could choose if you preferred your spawn masked or unmasked. He was loaded down with firepower and ready to take on any monster from the depths of hell.